Hackett students an example in relief

KALAMAZOO -- It was more than just another Homecoming celebration. Hackett Catholic Central High School's gala Friday night included the customary pomp and circumstance, but there also was a gift to The Rev. Geordani Jean Baptiste to take back to his parish in Haiti, where needs are great and gifts appreciated.

Hackett students raised money through donations, a walk-a-thon, a raffle, T-shirt sales and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The funds went to help Haitian relief efforts led by members of St. Francis de Sales Parish in Limbe, Haiti.

The amount of the gift? An astonishing $22,258.39 - quite an impressive figure when you figure the money was raised by a bunch of kids. Dedicated kids, but still, just kids.

They have helped in Louisiana, they perform community service here at home. Deb Gambon, the Hackett service coordinator, oversees the students, who are dedicated to these causes.

There are lessons to be learned.

"It's not a typical group of kids," said Hackett Principal Tim Eastman, after the check presentation. "They are so sensitive to what's going on in the world around them."

These students can teach us lessons in sensitivity that might spur actions needed very close to home.

Since the flooding of mid-September in our backyards, there have been no government declarations and seemingly little recognition that some Kalamazoo-area residents are in desperate situations.

I have walked through homes where mold crawls the walls, through basements where knee-high water stagnates. There have been heartbreaking tours led by nowhere-to-turn families, showing ruined appliances, waterlogged keepsakes and an overpowering feeling of helplessness.

Furnaces have been destroyed. Winter looms.

This is in our town, perhaps on your block. I have talked to county and state officials, who have limited resources and offer limited assistance. It doesn't come close to the amount of help these families need to restore their homes and lives.

Service organizations do what they can, but there isn't anyone available to scrub mold from walls, help lift water heaters from basements, or heft soaked drywall into trash bins.

Many of these flood victims are not in a position to perform these tasks. Some are not physically able, others can't afford to have this work done for them.

Houses sit in unlivable conditions. Families are cramped in with relatives, others live in hotels while continuing to make mortgage payments on homes they hope somehow to live in again.

More alarming are the families who have already resigned themselves to a dark reality. Those who know they cannot afford to make their homes livable, those who have already stopped making their mortgage payments.

These families will lose their homes.

Your neighbors will be gone. Front yards will transform themselves into untended weeds; boards will cover windows that used to twinkle with Christmas lights.

Hackett students have presented a shining example of the human obligation to help those in need.

Turn to your neighbor. Ask what you can do.

Jeff Barr can be reached at 388-8581 or jbarr@kalamazoogazette.com. His columns appear on Sundays and Thursday.